1. Modern Slavery
Modern Slavery encompasses slavery, servitude, human trafficking and forced labour. In accordance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (the Trust) is committed to improving its practices to combat modern slavery and fully supports the Government’s objectives to eradicate modern slavery and human trafficking.
The Trust has a zero tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery and is committed to acting ethically and with transparency in all its business dealings. Additionally, ensuring the implementation of effective systems and controls are in place to safeguard against modern slavery occurring within the Trust or within our supply chain. The Trust expects all suppliers it uses to follow the same ethical principles.
Tackling modern slavery requires a partnership approach and collaboration with a range of agencies. It is therefore imperative to have a combined approach as no single agency or individual can eliminate modern slavery in isolation.
2. About the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust
The Trust was founded in 1992 as part of the second wave of NHS Trusts to be established in England, and has three hospital sites: Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro; St Michael’s Hospital, Hayle; and West Cornwall Hospital, Penzance.
The Trust also provides imaging and outpatient services at 10 community hospitals and other locations across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, as well as birthing centres in St Austell, Helston and on the Isles of Scilly.
The Trust serves around 480,000 residents across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (CIOS), with the remainder of Cornwall’s population in the east and far north of the county looking to Plymouth and North Devon respectively, for their acute hospital services. As a year-round tourist destination, the number of people we care for is boosted by holidaymakers, which can more than double our population at the busiest times.
Over 7,000 people work together across our hospitals and services, including 400 volunteers and an in-house bank of over 1500 people working flexibly to help us respond to changes in demand.
The geography of our county, surrounded on three sides by sea, and the remoteness of the Isles of Scilly present unique challenges. Our population is growing and ageing. The number of people living in Cornwall is rising faster than the national average and we are planning for a six percent increase by 2035 in the number of people who live here.
3. Preventing slavery and human trafficking
Our position on modern slavery is to:
- Develop an awareness of human trafficking and modern slavery across our workforce so a commitment to ensuring all staff are aware of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and their safeguarding duty to protect and prevent any further harm and abuse when it is identified, or it is suspected that any individual may be or is at risk of modern slavery/human trafficking.
- Comply with legislation and regulatory requirements.
- Take all steps possible to ensure there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in any part of our business, and, as far as possible, ensure our suppliers and service providers have the same ethical approach to assist in promoting legislative requirements.
- The Trust will use its rights to exclude suppliers from selection procedures subject to regulations where it has knowledge that an applicant has committed an offence under section 2 or 4 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 among other offences.
We have the following policies which support our drive and obligations to tackling modern slavery, including (but not limited to):
- Adult Safeguarding Policy
- Safeguarding Children Policy
- Safeguarding Supervision Policy
- Deprivation of Liberty Safeguarding (DoLS) Policy
- Procurement Policy
- Fit and Proper Persons Policy
- Gifts, Hospitality, Sponsorship and Declaration of Interests Policy
- Recruitment Policy
- Freedom to Speak Up – Raising Concerns Policy
- Equality Diversity and Inclusion Policy
- Sexual Safety Policy
- Right to Work in the UK Policy
4. Risk Assessment and Management
The Trust will review procurement policies and procedures as a result of any further legislative changes instigated in response to tackling modern slavery. The consultation previously undertaken by the Department of Health and Social Care has now concluded and updated information published on their website on 5 June 2025 has been reviewed when formulating this statement.
The Trust has the measures identified within this statement to alleviate the risk of modern slavery within our organisation and supply chain.
5. Training and Promotion
Mandatory safeguarding training which includes modern slavery awareness.
The Trust has a Safeguarding Training Strategy which ensures that all staff who come into contact with adults, children and young people have a responsibility to safeguard and promote their welfare. To achieve this the Trust ensures that all health staff have access to appropriate safeguarding training, learning opportunities, safeguarding supervision and support to facilitate their understanding of the clinical aspects of patient’s wellbeing and information sharing.
The Safeguarding Service advertises how it can provide support and be contacted via a poster throughout the Trust. Additionally the Safeguarding Service has a dedicated web page https://royalcornwallhospitals.nhs.uk/your-care/safeguarding/ outlining comprehensive information, policies and resources available to provide support to staff, patients, service users and the public. This website page also details the work being done in partnership with other agencies to safeguard people who are at risk and ensure legal obligations are met.
6. Recruitment
The Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust works in accordance with policies in place to recruit individuals and ensure it has a flexible workforce. The Trust has a ‘Right to Work in the United Kingdom (UK) Policy’ which contains a flowchart on the process required to be followed to ensure new employees and workers identities are confirmed, and they have a right to work in the UK.
The recruitment services team establishes the successful applicant’s right to work status by arranging to meet with them to obtain and appropriately verify all relevant identity and right to work documents. For any employee or worker with a work permit or visa, the Trust carries out regular audits and management of these documents to ensure they remain valid.
The Trust only uses agencies which have been approved as part of the national framework agreement for assuring the standard of such agencies. Exceptionally, where this may not be possible the Assistant Director of Resourcing must agree which agency should be sourced and will ensure there is a written commitment from the agency used to confirm they comply with the immigration legislation and NHS Employment Checks Standards in respect of ‘Right to Work’ checks.
7. Due Diligence – Suppliers/tenders
The Trust has its own procurement team who ensure that all staff involved with procurement strive to achieve best value and comply with the Trust’s Standing Orders, Standing Financial Instructions, procurement legislation, Code of Conduct for NHS Managers, Standards of Business Conduct, the Bribery Act and are guided by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) Code of Ethics which can be found on the CIP website as follows: https://www.cips.org/employers/ethical-services/corporate-code-of-ethics/ This Code of Ethics references the following: ‘commit to eradicating unethical business practices including bribery, fraud, corruption and human rights abuses, such as modern slavery and child labour’.
The NHS purchase order terms and conditions for the procurement of goods and services has been strengthened and now contains information at Section 19.2 relating to requirements that must be adhered to in relation to Modern Slavery https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-terms-and-conditions-for-the-procurement-of-non-clinical-goods-and-services/#heading-6. As a result all purchase orders issued by the Trust are accompanied by these standard NHS terms and conditions which state:
- 1.12 it shall: (i) comply with all relevant Law and Guidance and shall use Good Industry Practice to ensure that there is no slavery or human trafficking in its supply chains; and (ii) notify the Authority immediately if it becomes aware of any actual or suspected incidents of slavery or human trafficking in its supply chains.
- 1.13 it shall: at all times conduct its business in a manner that is consistent with any anti-slavery policy of the Authority and shall provide to the Authority any reports or other information that the Authority may request as evidence of the supplier’s compliance with this Clause 10.1.12 and/or as may be requested or otherwise required by the Authority in accordance with its anti-slavery Policy.
Any supplier who is found to be carrying out such practices will be on the national supplier department list. The Trust checks this list as part of the Procurement Act 2023 legislation each time it undertakes an above threshold tender.
8. Performance Indicators
The Trust can establish the effectiveness of training and promotion of modern slavery by reviewing the number of safeguarding referrals it receives. This information is presented to a joint Quality Assurance Committee through a quarterly assurance report as well as through an Annual Report where the category associated with referrals is stipulated.
Additionally the Trust will be able to ascertain whether the steps it is taking to ensure that slavery and or human trafficking is not taking place within our business or supply chain if no reports are received from staff, the public or law enforcement agencies indicating the modern slavery practices have been identified.
9. Approval
This Modern Slavery statement for 2025/26 will be presented to the following Committees/Groups:
Audit and Risk Assurance Committee – 10 July 2025
Trust Board – 7 August 2025 or 4 September 2025
This Modern Slavery statement was presented to the Trust Board on 04 September 2025 and was approved.